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Engineering optics

Article in Proceedings of the IEEE · September 1987

DOI: 10.1109/JQE.1986.1073071 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 Book Reviews

The following reviews were selected from those recently pub- for researchers. Thisis a clear indication of theimmaturity of the
lished in various IEEE TRANSACTIONS,Magazines, and Newsletters. subject.
They are reprinted here to make them conveniently available to [Link],
the many readers who otherwise might not have ready access to aspublisher,statesthattheformatwasintendedtoreducethetime
them. Each review is followed by an identification of t
s
i original between the editorialprocess and the final publication. However,
source. the introduction was written in 1984, the most recent reference
cited was dated August 1983 (in a paper contained in the appendix
to Section I) and the book publication date is 1985. There is not
much further evidence of the rush to publish in that few errors
RobotHands and the Mechanics of Manipulation-T. Mason and were found. One error is that while reference 11was cited on page
J. K. Salisbury, Jr. (Cambridge, MA MI1 Press, 1985.)Reviewedby 16, it could not be found in the list of references, and another is
S. Gruber, Electrical Engineeringand AppliedPhysics Department, that the top figure on page 21 does not show the twist t6.
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 441M.
Reprinted from /FEE 1. Robotics and Automation, vol. RA-2, no. 1, p. 59,
It is fair to call Robot Hands and the Mechanics of Manipulation Mar. 1986.
a preliminary exploration of the mechanics of dexterous manip
ulation. It i s based almost entirely on the Ph.D. dissertationsof the
two authors. That ofDr. Salisbury is dated 1982,while the date of EngineeringOptics (Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol. 35)-
Dr. Mason’s dissertation was not evident. Keigo lizuka, Ed., (New York, NY: Springer-Verlag,1985.)Reviewed
The first section of the text by Dr. Salisbury developsthe k i n e by Chandra Roychoudhuri, Perkin-Elmer, Danbury, ff 06810.
matics of articulated fingers and hands in multiple contact with
other bodies. Synthesisof the mechanisms, the robothands of the It is a pleasure to review Keigo lizu ka’s book, Engineering Optics.
title, is considered too briefly. This is the major drawback of this The choice of topics is very good. The depth of treatment clearly
book, if one takes the practitioners point of view. Thefinal chapter indicates the appropriateness of the title. I would highly recom-
of Section I describes the Stanford/JPLhand in some detail. Non- mend it for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate stu-
dimensioned drawings of the tendon drive mechanism, which dents. Workedaut examples in almost every chapter make the
encompasses the tension sensors, are included along with pho- book suitable for self-study. For the sake of completeness, I w w l d
tographs of thehand and drive system. Theleap from theprevious have been tempted to add some concise sections on basic tech-
eight chapters to this last one is hardly an exercise for the casual niques of spectrometry, principles of dispersion and application,
reader-this gap would necessitate a text in its own right-but some and nonlinear optics with examples of wavelength conversion
more discussion of the thinking involved in the design process techniques, along with proper references for the reader to carry
would have been extremely valuable. Without these it is possible on independent study.
to be left with thenotion that only theconnectivities of this design Chapter 1on thehistory ofoptics makes for enjoyable reading.
were based upon the considerations in the theoretical chapters. It is brief, yet gives a feeling of comprehensiveness.
An appendix that includes three of Dr. Salisbury’s papers is of Introduction tobasic math gives interesting illustrationsto help
greater value,by virtue ofthis convenient packaging, to someone conceptualization. I enjoyed the touch of humor in the figure on
with a practical interest in robotics. Here, sensory feedback and p. 38. The addition of brief definitions of convolution, correlation,
control systems are briefly considered. and other Fourier transform-related theorems would have been
Section II, by Matthew Mason, entitled “Manipulator Grasping very useful.
and PushingOperations” occupies less than one-third of the book. Chapter 3 on diffraction theory is pedagogical and well treated.
It focuses on the mechanics of themanipulator-object system and Examples of diffraction in the following chapter are well selected.
includes some computer simulation results as well as a listing of The illustration ofa slit function using the two step function is very
the Lisp program Plan-Grasp, which was originally to be used on useful; both the power and the limitsof thesuperposition principle
the M.I.T. Lisp Machine. This program was developed to provide are underscored.
for planning a grasp maneuver when the object shape is known The Eikonal equation is developed from first principles with a
alongwith a rangeof initial [Link] planned grasp motion sufficient number of steps for self-study. I enjoyed the humor:
has been designed to minimize thesensitivity of the operationto “noodle optics is very easy to swallow” (p. 138). In Chapter 6 the
uncertainty in perception of thephysical situation (partorientation properties of lenses aredeveloped cogently and the selected prob-
and position as well as frictional properties of the environment). lems are instructive.
Mason’s stated goal is to obtain a comprehensive set of manip The brief chapter on the FFT is very useful for students of engi-
ulation operations and the abilityto predict part motion when the neering optics and aptly precedes chapters on holography (for
precise point of contact is unknown. This manipulation without computer generated holograms) and optical signal processing.
a rigid grasp (prehension) is the important part of Mason’s thesis. The chapters on holography are very practical. Suggestions are
The book is not intended as a text for a University course and there to builda vibration isolated table for holography with very
would fall far short of being an aid to designing a robot hand. It little money. However,the speckle phenomenon should have got-
is a presentation of fundamentals of the mechanics of manipu- ten more attention, as it is a real-life problem with coherent illu-
lation, which i s certainly an immature science. It exemplifies the mination. The treatment of photographic transfer curves should
problemthatanindividua1facesonenteringtheroboticsarea:there have been more explanatory and tied toequations for holograms
are either the texts that describe the capabilities and expectations with interchapter references.
of robotic automation and are written for managers or there are The approach in Chapters 10 and 11to optical signal processing
the texts such as this that develop the basic science and are
written is good. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, differen-

1134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL 75, NO. 8, AUGUST 1987

tiation, etc., are introduced [Link] on “Fractals andtheir applications in condensed matter physics,” pre-
tomography and an introductionto incoherent processing sents fundamental principles and useful applications in the field.
strengthen these chapters. The final article is “Electronic structure of 3d transition-atom
Side-looking radar is appropriately introduced as a part of the impurities in semiconductors.”
chapter on microwave holography.
Basics of fiberaptic communication are well introduced with
next-generation technology such as wavelength division multi- Artificial Intelligence:PrinciplesandApplications-Masoud Yaz-
plexing. The functional behavior of laser diodes is well introduced, dani, Ed. (New York, NY: Chapman & HaWMethuen, 1986,348 pp.,
including its wavelength tuning characteristics. paper, $22.00, ISBN 0-412-2724@7.)
Chapters on electrooptics, acoustooptics, and integrated optics
are brief and pedagogical, yetcomprehensive and sufficiently u p Following the Japaneseannouncement that they intend to devise,
todate, so that students can start directly consulting current lit- make, and market, in the l W s , computers incorporating a level
erature. of intelligence, a vast amount of energy and expense has been
Chapter-bychapter references are reasonably current for a text- diverted at the field of Artificial Intelligence. Workers for the past
book. I would highly recommend the bookfor anybody interested 25years in this discipline have tried to reproduce human behavior
in the basics of engineering optics. on computers and this book presents the most up-to-date survey
of their achievements and the problems. Subjects include: com-
Reprinted from / € E € / . Quantum Electronics, vol. QE-22, no. 7, pp. 1148- puter vision, speech processing, robotics, natural language pro-
1149, July 1986. cessing expert systems and machine learning. The book also
attempts to show the general principles behindthe various appli-
cations and finally attempts to show their implications for other
human endeavors suchas philosophy, psychology, and the devel-
opment of modern society.

Book Alert Calculations and Programsfor Power System Networks-Y. Wallach.

(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986, 395 pp., bound, $42.95,
ISBN 0-13-110321-0.)
This book discusses how to write and use off-line and on-line
computer programs to design and operate electric power system
networks. The computer programs that form the core of a working
The following descriptions of recent books were prepared by the system are included, as well as detailed descriptions of the cal-
s t a f f of the EngineeringSocieties Library, 345 Fast 47th Street,New culations required for start-up. Programs arewritten inPascal and
York, N Y 10017-2394. These books are available in the Library for can be easily transferred to other languages.
loan or reference use. The prospective buyer should contact the Special attention is given to real-timedispatching including state
listed publishers or his localtechnical book store. estimation, contingency analysis, anda parallel-processingsystem
on which to apply them. Also featured in the book are: An error
analysis ofthe programs; the stable, accurate, and frequently used
Signal Theory and Processing-Dedham, MA: Artech House, 1986, orthogonalization; a newand improved version of“optimally
618 pp., bound, price not given, ISBN 0-89006-185-8. ordered factorization.”
This book provides the theoretical background needed for an
understanding and the efficient use of signal theory and process-
ing. The Fault-Tolerant Multiprocessor Computer-T. Basil Smith Ill, et
This book consists of two parts. Chapters 1-7 as well as chapters al., (Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Publ., 1986,782 pp.,bound, $84.00 ISBN
14and 15areageneral introduction tosignal theory,whilechapters 0-8155-1087-X.)
8 to 13 are devoted to themodeling of the fundamental operations
encountered in signal processing. This book presents studies of two fault-tolerant computer sys-
tems designed to meet the extreme reliability requirements for
safety-critical functions in advanced NASA vehicles, plus a study
Digital Communication Systems-Peyton Z. Peebles. (Englewood of potentialarchitectures for future flightcontrol fault-tolerant sys-
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987,432pp., bound, $39.95,ISBN0-13- tems, which might succeed the current generation of computers.
2119706.) While it is understood that these studies were done for NASA, they
This book presents information on modern electrical commu- also have practical commercial applicability.
nication theory as applied to digitalcommunication systems.
Chapterscover: sampling principles, baseband digital waveforms,
basebanddigital systems, bandpass binary digital systems, and M- Videodisc Systems: Theory and Applications-Jordan Isailovic.
ary systems. Appendixes present reviews of deterministic signals (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987,451 pp., bound, $42.95,
and networks, and random signal theory, as well as information ISBN 0-13-941865-2.)
on a number of specific mathematical subjects. As a result of the author’s experience in research and devel-
opment in the field of videodisc systems, this book encompasses
Solid State Physics; Advances in Research and Applications. Volume the broad area joining videodisc systems including signal pro-
39bHenry Ehrenreich and David Turnbull, Eds. (New York, NY: cessing, modulation theory, TV systems, digital audio, and so on.
Academic Press, 1986,477 pp., bound, $72.00, ISBN 0-12607739-8.) Among its features, the book considers both theoretical and
practical aspects of videodisc systems, gives a panoramic view of
The first article, “Physics of fracture,” gives a comprehensive videodisc systems, discussesthevideodisc from the recordingand
analysis of how solids fracture with emphasis on the atomistic fea- production angle, details the problems of the standard TV color
tures. The second, “The internal structure of Guinier-Prestonzones signal recording, covers the application areas of videodisc systems
in alloys,” reviews developments in understanding the formation asananalogchannel,anddiscussesdigitalaudiocompactdisc(CD)
of clusters of impurity atoms during annealing. The third article, and CD-ROM systems.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 75, NO. 8, AUGUST 1987 1135

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